Facebook pixel Dr. Christopher Peys | Pepperdine University | Seaver College Skip to main content
Pepperdine | Seaver College
Christopher Peys

Dr. Christopher Peys

Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science
Seaver College
AC 237
310.506.6913

Biography

Christopher Peys is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University. He is a Rotary Global Grant-winning scholar and an award-winning educator who holds a PhD and Master of Letters (M.Litt.) from the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). As a political theorist with a keen interest in continental political thought and democratic theory, his work revolves around questions of ethics, politics, and the possibilities of political friendship. More specifically, his research is concerned with what it means to care for the spaces and "things" that bind together the public realm of "the political". He is the author of Reconsidering Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness: Arendt, Derrida, and “Care for the World” (London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2020).

In addition to teaching an upper-division course entitled "Democracy and Care for the World" (POSC 492), Peys is currently responsible for teaching several sections of Pepperdine's class on International Relations (POSC/INTS 344).

For a current CV and full list of his publications, please see his personal website: www.chrispeys.com.

Links to his publications are also available via Google Scholar.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations, 2018, University of St Andrews

  • Master of Letters in International Political Theory, 2012, University of St Andrews
  • Bachelors of Arts in History, 2011, Minor: Entrepreneurship, California State University, Long Beach

 

BOOK

  • Reconsidering Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness: Arendt, Derrida and ‘Care for the World’. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2020.

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES & REVIEW ESSAYS

  • “Children and their ‘Right to be Heard’: On a Child-Friendly Politics in an Age of Polycrisis,” Journal of International Political Theory. Accepted. Forthcoming Fall 2025.
  • Peys, Christopher & Marina Cantacuzino, “The Forgiveness Project: A Conversation about ‘Peace Activism’ and the Transformative Power of Story,” International Politics 60 (2023): 506-36. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00432-0.
  • “On the global politics of ‘decency’ and ‘restraint,’” Journal of International Political Theory 17, no. 3 (2021): 553-565. https://doi.org/10.1177/17550882211008941
  • Peys, Christopher and Brent J. Steele, “Restraint in International Politics: A Conversation between Brent Steele and Christopher Peys,” Contemporary Voices 2, no. 1 (2020): 2-21. DOI: http://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1593

BOOK CHAPTERS

  • “Space, Ontological Security, and Christo & Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped Reichstag (1995),” In: Space & Security, edited by Faye Donnelly & Tilman Schwarze. Bristol: Bristol University Press (Forthcoming, 2026).

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Review of “Caroline Ashcroft: Violence and Power in the Thought of Hannah Arendt. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. Pp. 278.” The Review of Politics 85, no. 1 (2023). doi:10.1017/S0034670522000833.
  • Review of “Manu Samnotra: Worldly Shame: Ethos in Action. New York: Lexington Books, 2020. Pp. 134. Arendt Studies 5 (2021): 207-209. https://doi.org/10.5840/arendtstudies202151.
  • Teaching Excellence Award, University of St Andrews, 2018
  • Rotary International Global Grant Recipient, 2014-2015

Topics

  • International Political Theory
  • International Relations Theory
  • History of Political Ideas

Courses

  • POSC 492: Democracy and Care for the World
  • POSC/INTS 344: International Relations